Anise and I ended up sharing a room with two other female soldiers for the night. The room seemed like a repurposed broom closet - it could barely fit all four of us. It was unpleasant and cramped. Still, it was a place to sleep. Given how bad supply problems were for the front lines, I wasn’t surprised that our sleeping conditions were this bad.

When we woke up the next morning, my essence reserves had almost recovered, so I made my way back to the medical bay and started healing. To my surprise, I found a few new faces in the hospital. There must have been another battle last night while I was asleep. Most of their injuries were light, but there were a few severe injuries. Once the patients in critical condition were healthy again, I moved on to Markus. It might have been a bit selfish to prioritize Markus, but I wanted him to be able to walk again. It only took me a few minutes to regrow his leg. After that, I woke him up. Normally, I would have just accepted that he was healed, but I was growing more wary of problems with my healing ability. Even though it could heal most injuries, there were clearly some cases where it didn't work.

“Trish? Oh, Miria. Good morning.” He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and then blinked as he looked at his legs. "It's back."

“I healed everything,” I said. “But I've been noticing corner cases where my healing ability doesn't work perfectly. Can you do some exercises for me, so that I can make sure the healing worked?"

"Sure."

With my guidance, Markus started running through a series of tests for his leg. He flexed his leg, poked the regrown parts, and then started applying weight to it. Finally, he stood up, walked around, and did a few hops. Then, he grinned, and pulled me into a hug. “It feels just like before. Thank you.”

I smiled, and didn't say anything.

Markus spent a few more minutes marveling at his regenerated leg, before he finally stopped. "All right, let's go get breakfast. The commanders will definitely start hollering at the other soldiers soon. Since I'm healthy, they might drag me along again. Might as well get a bite to eat first. Nothing is more miserable than trying to exercise on an empty stomach.”

The two of us left the medical bay. When we reached the meal hall, I saw Anise getting out of line with a tray of food. I waved at her, and she beelined towards us.

"Miria! I thought you would take longer in the hospital before coming to eat. I was going to save you a spot in line after I finished eating. Also, Markus is up!" She said.

"Yeah, I finished healing him," I said. Then, I swapped to the communication bracelet.

said Anise, as she caught up to me and Markus and started standing in line again.

I paused, and tried to figure out whether I should contact him via bracelet. I didn’t want to disturb his sleep, but if the commanders were going to wake everyone up soon anyway, he might be more miserable if he didn't have breakfast. Eventually, I decided to contact him.

said Felix.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I said.

he said.

“Hey Markus, do you know where we could find a magnet here?” asked Anise.

Markus gave us a blank look. “Why the sudden request for a magnet?”

“I saw Felix this morning, and he asked me for one. He was saying something about them being a solution to a problem he was having?” Anise shrugged.

“I don’t know if you can find any magnets in the fort. Hmm… maybe one of the base commanders has one? You could also try the soldiers. Some soldiers might have a magnetic badge or pin or something. It’s unlikely, but you could always try.” Markus shrugged. “As a healer with a strong ability, they’ll be happy to accommodate you if you ask.”

“Good enough for me,” I said with a shrug.

“Where is Felix, anyway? Is he coming to eat with us?”

“No,” said Anise. “He seemed pretty wrapped up in his work.”

“What is he working on, anyway?”

I asked.

“Some sort of magnetic gun that shoots out and returns the spatial swords,” Anise said. “You’d have to ask him for more details.”

Markus frowned. “I’m not sure if we have enough magnets to sustain large-scale magnet guns. I can see how it might work, but..." Markus shrugged. "Well, any idea is better than no idea. I hope it works."

"He might not succeed, but there’s no harm in trying, right?” I said, shrugging. I wasn't sure if Felix's idea would work either, but anything seemed worth a shot these days.

“I suppose.” Markus sounded doubtful, but didn’t say anything else as we finally reached the front of the line. The chefs gave Markus and I a tray with a few wilted fruits and potato residue on it. I glanced at my meal dubiously. It didn't look very appetizing.

Markus also winced as he looked at his meal. "Supply shortages really are hitting us hard," he muttered, before he shook his head. "Whatever. Food is food." The three of us made our way to a nearby table, before we sat down to eat. In between bites, I decided to interrogate Markus about the military’s secret project. He was the only one that had seen it up front, and I still had the subtle feeling that something was weird about his description of the secret weapon.

“Sorry, Miria. I already said everything I remember,” said Markus, in response to my queries. I sighed, but nodded. If Markus didn’t know anything else… I would just have to wait and see, like everyone else. At the very least, the military had some kind of plan, which was reassuring to know. Still, I wished I had a little bit more detail to go off of. If the military's plan was likely to backfire, I wanted to know now. That way, we could potentially flee the continent and leave for the colonies or something. It wasn't an ideal plan, but it would keep us alive, at least.

After we finished eating, Anise and I went to go find a magnet for Felix. Luckily, after some thinking we realized that compasses were faintly magnetic. It was a weaker material than Felix had been hoping for, but it was good enough. The military had a small supply of compasses available, so Felix broke one down for parts.

After that, I spent the rest of my essence healing the soldiers, while Anise started joining combat missions. Since the worldstriders would detect her Zelyrian magic if she got too close to them, Anise had to be very, very careful on battlefields. Luckily, most fights between the worldstriders and the military were ranged battles anyway.

Life at the forts started to settle into a routine. Every day, I healed soldiers, Felix worked on his new project and Anise started joining smaller combat missions. A week passed before I heard an announcement from the captain of the fort.

The military’s secret project, ‘Nightsong,’ had finished its testing phases, and was now being officially deployed to the front lines.